Seeing the forest for the trees
Minneapolis City Council member Diane Hofstede and state Rep. Bobby Joe Champion, center, share a shovel as they help plant the first of 3,100 boulevard trees to replace the damaged tree canopy in north Minneapolis. Last May's tornado downed about 2,400 boulevard trees and 3,425 park trees. Also joining in are City Council members Don Samuels and Barb Johnson and state Rep. Joe Mullery. Holding the tree is forestry worker Bee Yang. My colleague Laura Yuen took this photo April 9.
My little tree-hugging heart swelled yesterday when I arrived home.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board crews have planted new trees on the boulevard to replace the ones that died from some kind of bug.
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Tomorrow, April 28, the non profit Tree Trust group will host two free workshops on proper tree planting and care 10 to 11 a.m., April 28, Powderhorn Park and 7 to 8 p.m., May 1, UROC (the University of Minnesota's Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center at 2001 Plymouth Ave. N.). To register, contact Tree Trust's Forestry Department at 952-767-3886.
The workshop is aimed at folks who have asked to have trees planted. City and park officials say 7,500 trees have been planted in the past five years.
When St. Paul city officials took stock of their tree situation they came up with these facts:
Tree canopy covers 32.5% of the total land area of Saint Paul
66.2% of Saint Paul is suitable for tree canopy cover
Residential, single-family parcels offer the greatest area for increased canopy cover
If you want the big picture for the state of Minnesota's tree story, there's a dandy discussion in the newest issue of the University of Minnesota's CFAN's magazine.
Couple of points emerge: There are too many maples, and urban tree life expectancy is relatively short because of stress.